


Snapshots

by xSparklingRavenx



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Cooking, Fluff, Gen, Homesickness, Humor, Loneliness, Photography, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-22 12:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7440181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSparklingRavenx/pseuds/xSparklingRavenx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of stories written for FFXV Week.</p><p>Day 1, Favourite Duo - Prompto sends amusing texts in the dead of the night, meanwhile Noctis sleeps through them. Set while they’re in high school.<br/>Day 2, Comical - Someone has made off with Ignis’s recipes, and Gladiolus is enlisted to find out who.<br/>Day 3, Fake Smiles - Mood in camp is low. Ignis decides to take up photography to fix it.<br/>Day 4, One of them is missing - With Noctis lost deep in a cavern, fights erupt, bad jokes are told, and Prompto ends up in the middle of it all.<br/>Day 5, Bro Code - Noctis is sick, Prompto wants a nickname, Ignis deals with emojis, and Gladiolus watches them drive down the wrong path. Four tiny stories about the boys and the Bro Code.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Light, First Text

**Author's Note:**

> OOOH I've got those pre-post nerves which I haven't had in a LONG time which is probably a good thing because I'm excited to be writing these boys! I'll probably turn this into a collection for all seven days if I manage to get the other days written.
> 
> I borrowed the very first line of the fic from the shower thoughts tumblr, so I can't claim that! My sister provided the mermaid one, but whether that comes from tumblr or not is a mystery to me. No beta for this sadly, so I did all the editing and checking myself. If you see anything in the ways of spelling errors etc, please don't be afraid to point them out! I'm mortified when there are mistakes in my work so I have checked it carefully, but sometimes those mistakes SNEAK IN
> 
> Enjoy!

_“hey noct u ever realise ur dog probably doesnt know ur name?”_

_“omg i just heard this rly cool song ok ok im gonna send u the lyrics later and u can listen to it at school”_

_“agH i just knocked my camera ofF THE SIDE it was like some slow mo crap ok i thought i was gonna die its ok tho it lived”_

_“noct do u ever actually wake up????? ive txted u at like 10am before and ur still sleeping are u even human or are u actually a sloth :P”_

There are more, all from Prompto and all dated as being sent at around 4am this morning when Noctis had been very much asleep. It takes several moments of blinking before his eyes adjust to the too-bright screen, but he makes sure to read all of them before throwing his phone to the side. Really. What had Prompto been doing texting him at such an ungodly hour of the morning? More interestingly, what had Prompto been doing up at that time at all?

Noctis can’t picture it, much in the same way that he can’t picture seeing a clock between the times of 11pm and 7am and even _that’s_ too early. Looking through the texts again, he wonders if he should reply before deciding not to bother. Why type out a response to something that was sent hours ago when he’s going to see him soon anyway?

It takes him at least fifteen minutes to get himself into a state where he’s ready to leave the comfort of his bed, the only thing keeping his eyes open being the knowledge that his father would probably come and shake him awake himself if he went back to sleep now. By the time he’s gotten himself dressed, it’s been half an hour. He knows he’s hopeless in the morning; Prompto’s comparison to a sloth isn’t that far from the truth. It’s a miracle that his alarm even managed to rouse him

Breakfast is a quick affair, eaten with his father before he’s out of the castle and being chauffeured off to school. His phone buzzes while he’s busy staring out the window watching the world go past. A quick look at the screen shows that it’s another text from Prompto.

_“its freezing today! hope u wrapped up warm! >D”_

Noctis wonders if Prompto turned off the autocorrect on his phone on purpose and that’s why none of his texts involve capital letters unless he’s trying to use an emoji. He types back to this one, his own very much on autocorrect taking good care of his grammar. _“Got a coat, I’m fine.”_

The next text is a selfie of Prompt standing out in the courtyard of the school, grinning at the camera. Underneath it says _“waiting for u, dont keep me here long!”_

He doesn’t. Not ten minutes later he’s walking in, ready and waiting for an excited hand to bash him on the shoulder. Predictably it comes, bringing with it Prompto’s cheerful “Morning!”

“Hey,” Noctis says, adjusting his bag on his shoulder over where Prompto slapped him. “You seem chipper this morning.”

“When don’t I?” Prompto replies, pulling a face. If he’s tired from his 4am texting exploits, he certainly doesn’t show it. “You look like you always do, _tired._ Oh man, we’ve got maths first. I’m in _no_ way prepared for that. I might die.”

“And leave me to face it alone?"

Prompto laughs, his grin boyish. “Okay, okay, so maybe I won’t _die._ It’s still eh though. I’m a creative soul, Noct! I need to be out in the field with my camera!”

“Even though it’s cold?” Noctis could think of a million other things he’d rather be doing than creeping about in the bitter winds trying to find the right angle to photograph a tree at. “How is your camera by the way?”

“Huh?”

“After you dropped it last night.”

“Oh yeah! You should have seen my face when I caught it with my elbow Noct, I thought it was all over!” he seemingly recreates what his face was at the time, looking a mixture of horrified and surprised. “It’s a good thing I was the only one there ‘cause I yelled so loud when it fell! Made a pretty bad sound, but it’s intact. Mostly. I think. It might be a bit scratched on the side.”

Noctis can’t imagine a house where it’d be okay to scream in the middle of the night and not have twenty people including his father come running to check on him. That’s probably a good thing. A few months ago he’d been to Prompto’s house for the first time, and he hadn’t been able to escape the emptiness that pervaded it. He can’t say he didn’t enjoy it though. Cooking dinner there had been an adventure, even if Noctis had managed to burn everything like some incompetent fool while Prompto had stood and laughed at him.

“Noct?”

“Sorry, was just thinking. I’m glad your camera lives another day, it’d have been pretty sad if you lost everything on it.”

Prompto looks aghast at the mention. “I’d have _cried._ Like, I wouldn’t have even shown up today because I’d be too deep in mourning. Don’t even say that Noct.”

“Sorry,” Noctis shrugs, walking ahead. Prompto jogs to catch up with him, going on about how if his camera _had_ broken he’d have had to go shopping for a new one and _aren’t the new models so cool, Noct?_ Noctis agrees to the best of his ability, because as far as he knows the only difference between the one Prompto has and the high end models in the shops is the price. Until Prompto the only camera he’d probably have ever bothered with is the one built into his phone and even then, he was hardly one for taking copious amounts of selfies.

“Hey,” Prompto says, tone musing. He bites the inside of his cheek before following up. “They weren’t annoying, right?”

Noctis looks back at him with a frown. “What wasn’t?”

“The texts, I mean. Like, you don’t mind me texting you like that right? If you do, tell me and I’ll stop!”

Somehow, despite all of Prompto’s outwards confidence, it’s such a _him_ question. Shaking his head, Noctis slaps Prompto’s back, scoffing. “Of course I don’t mind. Do what you want.”

_~x~_

_“there’s a SPIDER in my ROOM saVE ME I HATE BUGS”_

_“i threw a book at it but i missed but it fell off the wall im gonna die noct”_

_“okay it scurried away im safe i think but if i dont reply tomorrow u know why”_

_“rip prompto argentum killed by spider T_____T”_

_“im feeling like dinosaur nuggets………….”_

Underneath that last one is indeed a picture of cooked dinosaur shaped nuggets, with one sad looking T-Rex missing its tail. It’s dated as being sent at 2:26, so all Noctis has learned today is that Prompto likes to cook in the early hours of the morning. It’s actually quite impressive. Even if someone else cooked for Noctis at that time, he wouldn’t be getting up for it. Apparently Prompto is a stronger man than he looks.

Laying in bed, not actually needing to get up this morning because it’s a glorious weekend, Noctis actually decides to respond this time. _“Did the spider kill you then, or should I start planning a funeral?”_

The response is almost instantaneous, which would be a surprise except for the fact that it’s almost noon and normal people like Prompto have typically been awake for a few hours by now. _“no!!! didnt find it tho im terrified of my room.”_

Noctis grins at the response, imagining the scenario; Prompto, creeping around his room like a street cat, trying to get in and out as quickly as possible without disturbing the arachnid. _“Could ask Gladio to deal with it for you.”_ Noctis taps out as a joke.

_“thats a bit much! your bodyguard’s probs got better stuff 2 deal w/than me and spider issues”_

Noctis frowns, the self-depreciating nature of the text not lost on him. He goes to tap out a response when there’s a knock at the door. “I’m awake!” he calls out.

The door opens and his father’s head appears around it as he leans in. “You are? I was just checking. As much as you may want to, sleeping in until 1 in the afternoon isn’t the most lucrative use of time.”

They both laugh at that. “I would if I could,” Noctis says. “Hey, dad, you know Prompto?”

“You’ve mentioned him a few times, your friend from school?"

“That’s him. You don’t mind if I have him here, do you?”

“If you want him here, I won’t tell you no,” Regis says, his expression soft. Maybe it’s because Noctis’s pool of friends has never been particularly large despite his popularity at school. “Let me know in advance and I’ll try and clear my schedule so I can meet him.”

“I’ll try. Please don’t embarrass me in front of him though.”

Regis laughs heartily at that. “I can’t promise anything.”

His father leaves after that, letting Noctis return to his phone. There’s another text waiting for him. _”did u see the nugs? they tasted sO good!”_

_“Yeah, they looked pretty tasty. Why were you cooking at that time in the morning?”_

_“i was hungry!! im the food god seriously, bet i could give ur royal cooks a run for their money”_

With the way Prompto responds it’s like being on some kind of instant messenger. He can type insanely fast. _“The god of dinosaur nuggets? Alright then, why don’t you put that to the test? Want to come over sometime soon?”_

Given the speeds of Prompto’s previous replies, the lack of instantaneous response makes Noctis wonder if he’s somehow gone far, like he’s overstepped some kind of boundary that he didn’t know existed until this point. But why? He’s been to Prompto’s before. That hadn’t been an issue.

He remembers Prompto talking about his empty house, how he could drop his camera and yell about it and not have anyone come and check. What would the castle feel like in comparison to that? Maybe he felt intimidated? His phone buzzes. He opens this text at lightning speed and breathes a sigh of relief when he reads the content. _“seriously?! that’d be so so cool! when?”_

Not a weekday, because his father would definitely be disappointed if he couldn’t meet a friend of his. Sundays were sacred lazy days, but he would have to make sacrifices as King so there’s no harm in starting now he supposes. Look at him, treating this like some childish play-date. Despite how foolish it seems, he can’t help but smile as he replies, _“Next Sunday?”_

_“totally!!! oh man im so pumped! do i have to dress up fancy? i dont wanna look stupid or anything in front of the king!”_

Oh god. If Prompto turned up in a suit in front of his dad he’d never live it down. _“Just bring yourself as you. Dad’s the King but you’re not royalty, you don’t have to try, promise.”  
_

The response takes a while to come through again. When it does, it just reads, _“yh, ur right.”_

_~x~_

_“oh yes yes more good songs im finding i cant wait to show u! :3c”_

_“did u know im rly good at making cupcakes? we should so make cupcakes when i come over >D >D >D”_

_“huh noct, u ever wonder how mermaids pee?”_

Noctis is up to see this text arrive, despite it coming through at 1:44. Somehow he’d forgotten to turn his phone off before going to bed, and more shockingly still, the incessant buzzing had actually managed to rouse him. Blearily he reaches for his phone and turns the screen on. It’s like being hit with a flash bomb. The bright light blinds him a good minute before his eyes begin to adjust.

He stares at the text, wondering what on earth he’s supposed to say to it, and then sleepily types back _“How would anyone know that? Mermaids probably don’t exist anyway.”_

As in typical Prompto style, the response is immediate. _“ur awake?! wtf who r u and what have u done w/the real noct?????”_

_“You woke me up. We can make cupcakes if you want btw.”_

_“aghh oh man oh man im SO SO SORRY ill stop now if you wanna go to bed. i totally didnt mean to wake u up, i just couldnt sleep”_

Couldn’t sleep? Just like every other night that he’s been texting? _“It’s fine, Prompto. Seriously, what are you doing thinking about mermaids and their toilet habits at this time in the morning?”_

_“ah its nothing, rly!”_

_“Come on, it seems like you can’t sleep every night. Surely there’s something.”_

_“all i asked was if mermaids can pee! U should ask ignis that. hes ur advisor isnt he? he’ll know.”_

Noctis frowns. He could accept that, or he could pry a little bit further. Going against his better judgement, he does. _“Yeah, I could. But Prompto, it isn’t just about mermaids or dinosaur shaped nuggets, is it?"  
_

Pause. He takes a second to send it before he does, not wanting to start something but also wanting to know if something _is_ up. As soon as he hits the send button his heart rate picks up a little bit. It feels somewhat like treading on tenuous ground even though he isn’t quite sure why.

There’s a long, long break between that and the reply Prompto gives him. Noctis sees the little dialogue box indicating that Prompto is typing pop up and disappear three times like it’s too shy to stay visible for long before a text finally comes through. When it does, it’s surprisingly long.

_“uh. This is hard to say. Um. Idk it’s just kind of…lonely? Lonely here. And im like, really lonely. At night, so I think about it a lot and then I can’t sleep. So i just thought, hey, if i text noct about what im doing, maybe ill feel a little less lonely! Cause im telling someone about what im doing or thinking. Is that stupid? Thats totally stupid oh god im SO lame”_

Oh, Noctis thinks, rereading the text again. His sleepy mind takes a while to process the words fully. It shouldn’t really be a surprise, but hearing it straight from Prompto himself makes it worse. In comparison to his usual demeanour, this text is startlingly sombre.

He recalls Prompto’s house, how his parents never showed even when the crown prince was there, how it had just been him and Prompto and no sign of anyone else. Even when his own father is busy he still makes the effort to spend time with Noctis. It’s a realisation, and one that hits him like a stack of bricks. Prompto, as much as he has freedom and as much as he goes through every day grinning and snapping photos, doesn’t have the perfect life.

It takes him a while to formulate a reply, and by the time he’s ready Prompto has texted him again. _“ahhh you should ignore like this cause im so lame sending you this sort of crap. You’re the prince!! you shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of stuff. sorry noct.”_

Oh no. No, Noctis had not been woken up to hear Prompto apologise at him like he was beneath him. He starts typing, hoping to out-speed anything else Prompto might have to say. _“I like getting your texts. If you’re lonely, text away. I’d text back more often if I was awake at the same time as you. You’re just always up at weird early morning hours that I can’t stomach.”_

He stops tapping for a moment, debating on whether or not to put some kind of silly emoji there to try and alleviate the mood. He decides not to, not really feeling the emoji lifestyle that Prompto seems to favour, and carries on. _“If the castle doesn’t put you off, you can stay over you know. That is, as long as you don’t keep me awake, or I’ll have to kick you out.”_

_Does that sound too harsh? He amends. “That’s a joke.  I kind of get it actually.  When I was little, dad was always busy. I’d wait and wait for him but sometimes he wouldn’t show. It’s not the same, but. You know.”_

Noctis does worry for a moment that he’s made it about himself, but no, he reasons, he’s just empathising. If he knows anything about Prompto, it’s that he’ll appreciate the effort. He sends it, and then, as a little extra, he sends a second text. _“Btw. Just because I’m the prince doesn’t mean that I can’t care about my friends when they’re feeling off. You don’t have to make yourself feel insignificant, okay?”  
_

Is it enough? He knows that the texts are just words but he’s more than willing to back up his claims when it comes to it. God. It’s too early in the morning for this. Dramatic weighty friendship chats are not really his deal, and when they are, they should be an afternoon only affair.

Prompto takes an absolute age to reply. So long, in fact, that Noctis’s eyes are starting to get heavy again. He’s almost asleep when his phone finally buzzes, zapping him out like a bolt of electricity. _“u are the KINDEST person ive ever met noct i think i might cry……you really mean that tho? All of it?”_

_“I wouldn’t have sent it if I didn’t mean it.”_

_“TRU!!! i trust you!! i didnt know that about your dad, but it makes sense. Agh. Its so weird calling the King ‘your dad’. Thank you so much tho rly. What did I do to deserve u as a friend????”_

_“I think you came up to me and made me your friend, Prompto. It was all you.”  
_

_“YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!! Oh man I feel so loved rn thank u im gonna make this up to you so much do you wanna do a rly cool photoshoot??? I mean that’s all I can rly offer cause my talents aren’t that widespread BUT”_

_“Sure, I’ll take you up on that if you want."  
_

_“YES! You’re the best man. gonna totally blow u away w/my cooking too. Really, thanks so much tho.  I’LL LET YOU SLEEP NOW! G’NIGHT!”_

Noctis taps out a quick agreement and _“goodnight”_ before tossing his phone to the side and going back to sleep.

_~x~_

Next Sunday, Prompto turns up at the castle gates as planned. Him standing there is something that Noctis might have loved to film if he had the right equipment. Star-struck is the only way to describe him, a kind of awe on his face that Noctis doesn’t think he’s ever seen on anyone else. It’s hard to be excited about the castle when he lives in it every day, but Prompto’s enthusiasm is contagious.

“Sorry, but don’t take pictures in here,” Noctis warns him as he welcomes him in. “It’s nothing against you. Just, security stuff, you know.” 

“I won’t take a single snap!” Prompto promises, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Oh man, oh man. This is _so_ cool. This place is so huge! How do you even find anything?”

  
”Live here your whole life and it isn’t that bad,” Noctis snorts. “Hang on, follow me.”

Prompto does obediently, like a puppy at his heels. He doesn’t stop looking around in amazement, even as Noctis takes him towards his father’s study. “Dad?” he says, knocking on the door. Prompto almost trips over himself as he comes to a stop.

“The _King?”_ he whispers in horror, as if he somehow hadn’t expected this. Noctis smirks. “Right _now?_ Oh no I’m not ready I don’t have anything to _say…!_ ”

Without giving Prompto the chance to prepare, Noctis swings the door open, beckoning him in. Prompto squeaks, stumbling in behind him. “Noctis?” Regis says. “Ah, is this your friend?”

It’s there, as Prompto stutters over his greeting to his father, that Noctis truly appreciates having at least one normal, non-royal friend. He’s different. Ignis or Gladio wouldn’t come looking to him for some kind of comfort. It’s nice to be needed, he thinks, and it’s nice to be able to help.

And anyway, there’s something special about having Prompto glow red in the face when Regis offers him his hand, or shaking it far too quickly.

Special? Noctis shakes his head. _Hilarious_ is the word.


	2. Spice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has made off with Ignis’s recipes, and Gladiolus is enlisted to find out who.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2! The theme was comical so I went with my best attempt a humour. Gladio and Ignis are actually my favourites to write? I find them a lot easier than the other two for some reason! Once again, beta'd and screened by myself only, so if you catch a mistake please tell me! Anyway, here we go! I hope you enjoy!

“Gladiolus,” Ignis says one night at dinner, voice low and hushed to avoid attracting the attention of Noctis or Prompto. “A word, please.”

It is at this point that Gladiolus begins saying his prayers to whatever deities are up there in the midnight black sky, because when Ignis wants ‘a word’ it usually means he’s done something that will lead to cold blooded murder. For some reason or other Ignis treats all of them like children, and it puts the fear of God in Gladiolus no matter what time of day it is.

But he’s _Gladiolus,_ the bodyguard of the heir apparent, the strongest man on their team, so being visibly afraid of Ignis is out of the question. He meets his eyes head on and says, in the best unbothered tone he can muster, “Yeah?”

Ignis’s bespectacled eyes glance briefly at the other two members of their team before looking back, his expression dark. “Do you recall my Garula steak recipe?”

The thought of it sets Gladiolus’s stomach rumbling even though he’s just enjoyed a dinner of thoroughly burnt toast at the hands of Noctis. He doesn’t know whose bright idea it was to let the prince cook, but it certainly wasn’t his. “Course I do. What I wouldn’t give for one of those babies right now.”

“Well, you’re out of luck. As fate would have it, the recipe has gone missing, along with some of my others.”

Oh. This is about cooking. Gladiolus’s heart sinks. “Why does that matter? You’ve memorised them, right? You invented the damn things."

“Yes, I have and I did, but that isn’t the problem.” Ignis pauses for seemingly nothing more than dramatic effect, pushing his glasses up his nose. He looks completely ridiculous, but Gladiolus enjoys eating dinner and so chooses not to comment. “The issue is that they’re _missing._ ”

Gladiolus looks at him for a moment, trying to glean the meaning. Apparently he’s stupid because he can’t figure it out. “But you’ve memorised them? Ain’t that good enough.”

“No!” Ignis snaps, causing the other two to look over sharply. Prompto looks like a frightened mouse, eyes wide and body alert. Noctis on the other hand looks entirely disinterested now the initial outburst is over. “Apologies. Me and Gladiolus are just having a word."

Prompto grimaces, quickly getting up from his seat to gather plates. “Oh man, I don’t envy him. Hope you didn’t mess up too bad, Gladio!”

“Have fun in the afterlife,” Noctis comments.

“Ahem,” Ignis returns his attention to Gladiolus, lowering his voice again. “Let me reiterate. The real problem here is that they are gone, and either our prince or fellow ruffian is the thief.”

Gladiolus thinks long and hard about this one, trying to figure out just exactly why Ignis might have a problem with one of them making off with his recipes. Were they somehow sacred? Enchanted perhaps? If Prompto were to try and cook one, would he be felled by a silence spell? That could be pretty funny. “Iggy, spell this out for me, ‘cause I’m really not seeing a problem.”

“I made those recipes _perfect._ ” Ignis says, his expression stone. “And if either of them have taken them I’ve no doubt they will be tampered with. Ruined! I know how they detest my use of spice.”

Gladiolus wants to say he agrees, that Ignis’s liberal use of weirdly named spices doesn’t benefit any of them. He decides not to. “Okay, fair enough. But why are you telling me this? Why don’t you just, I dunno, go up to them and demand them back?”

“I could,” Ignis says, his stone expression turning sly, “but they would just deny it and I doubt I’d ever get them back. I want you to spy on them. Enlist in their ranks, so to speak, and catch them red handed.”

“Are you being serious Iggy?” Gladiolus says incredulously. “Like, can you actually hear yourself right now?”

“Cooking is not something that amateurs can do by thieving a brilliant recipe!”

Brilliant is a strong word. Gladiolus values his life, so once again, he restrains himself. “You’re bitter. You just don’t want them cooking something that will turn out better than yours.”

He regrets it as soon as the words leave his mouth. Ignis looks like Ramuh in that moment, framed by the campfire’s light; frightening, God-like, and powerful. Not old, at least, that’s a relief. “Get my recipes back, Gladiolus. I will not have them desecrated."

Would it kill him to talk like a human being? “Alright, alright, I’ll look into it. Don’t burst an artery over this or anything, it’s just food Iggy.”

“Do not ‘it’s just food’ me. Tonight was a disgrace as it is. That toast was more burnt than those MT’s we dispatched earlier.”

“You’re not wrong.” he agrees. Right, he thinks, time to start gathering info. “Okay, which suspect is more likely?”

Ignis’s mouth is a thin line. “Prompto, obviously. I don’t think his Highness particularly cares, judging by this evening’s offering.”

A fair observation. “I’ll confront him in the morning. Don’t worry, Iggy, I’ve got your back.”

_~x~_

The general order of waking up in the morning is easy to predict. Ignis is always the first one up, five minutes before the alarm, followed by Prompto being quick to rise as soon as it goes off. Gladiolus takes a little longer, enjoying his final few seconds of sleep before having to push himself up, and Noctis just won’t get up at all if he can help it. This makes it easy to get Prompto alone, because by the time he’s up, Ignis is stewing quietly in the corner and Noctis is still dead to the world.

“Hey, Prompto,” Gladiolus says going over to where he’s sat, legs hanging off the side of the rock they’d chosen to camp on. “Need to ask you something.”

“Yeah?” Prompto replies, looking up. “What’cha need?”

Gladiolus pauses to think about how to go about it, and then decides that being upfront is the easiest way. “Look, I’ll be brutally honest. Ignis wanted me to…I don’t know what he wanted me to do, actually, but, did you take the guy's recipes?"

Prompto gives a smile that is positively angelic. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right, great, well, can you give them back? ‘Cause he’s getting on my case about it and he’s being weird.”

“When is Iggy not being weird?” Prompto says.

“Stop dodging the topic.”

Puffing out his cheeks, Prompto looks like a child that has been denied a toy. “How did you even know it was me?”

“There’s four of us. Ignis is the one with the problem, I know it wasn’t me, and Noctis doesn’t care enough to do something like this.”

“Ah, I didn’t know you were a detective, Gladio!” Prompto exclaims. “Okay, okay, but, before we go as far as giving them back, will you hear me out?”

“About what?”

“The recipes! I made some really great changes, so, wanna hear?”

Raising an eyebrow, Gladiolus looks over towards Ignis to make sure he isn’t watching and relaxes his posture. “I’m listening.”

Snickering, Prompto pulls a crudely folded up piece of paper from his back pocket. Gladiolus starts writing a eulogy in his head for Prompto’s upcoming funeral, because there probably won’t be much left of him when Ignis sees what he’s done to it. Unfolding it, Prompto hands it over, grinning. “Check this out! Oh, um, this isn’t Ignis’s version, by the way. I wrote out my own. His are safe in the tent under Noctis’s pillow, so if he wants them back he can have them. I just amended what he already had to make them better!”

Gladiolus casts his eyes over it, but because he’s no cook a lot of it doesn’t make a whole ton of sense. It looks a lot simpler than Ignis’s version. There’s also a surprising lack of vegetables. “What happened to the greens?”

“Oh! That wasn’t me, that was Noctis’s input. He said that it was costing a bomb in gil to keep us stocked in veggies.”

“So he _is_ in on this? You know he only said that because he hates them.”

“Eh, he helped a bit. I actually like vegetables, but, I’m not gonna tell the crown prince no am I?”

“Good point. This actually looks a ton cheaper to make, you know. Can you even cook?”

Prompto thumps his chest proudly with his fist. “You bet I can! Iggy just doesn’t have any faith in me so he never lets me try with the good ingredients. _Hey!_ Let’s go out and beat up a Garula and make some steak tonight! Me and you! With this recipe! What do you say?"

Gladiolus looks at Ignis again. Saying yes feels a lot like the ultimate form of betrayal.  Stretching his arms, he can feel the burn in his muscles, the itch to fight. “I say, why not.”

“Yeah!” Prompto cheers, hopping up like an overexcited rabbit. Taking the recipe back, he shoves it into the back of his pocket. “Hey Iggy! Hear that! Me and Gladio are heading out to get food!”

Ignis regards Gladiolus with a look, one that he’s come to understand over the years as being _what the hell are you doing?_ Gladiolus just shrugs his response. “We’ll be back later, Ig! Look after his Highness and keep yourself hyped up on Ebony!”

Prompto hops off the rock in a dangerous manner before Ignis can reply. “Don’t be long!” Ignis calls back, but Gladiolus can hear the real warning in there. It’s more like, _“Don’t be long in getting my belongings back!”_

“Be back soon!” Gladiolus replies, taking the long way round down the rock.

_~x~_

Watching Prompto cook is wrong. It’s like watching a clown do accounting or something; completely out of place and just plain weird. It isn’t even like he’s doing badly. He’s actually keeping up with the demanding task pretty well.

“What are you _doing_?” Ignis hisses as he comes out of the tent to Gladiolus watching all of this happen. “I told you to get me my recipes back, not let us be killed by food poisoning!”

“Prompto said he’d only give you them back if we let him cook,” Gladiolus lies, grinning, “so I’m letting him cook.”

Ignis looks aghast, running a hand over his face. Gladiolus fears him for a moment, because that look is never good. “Why? Gladiolus, I do think this might be the _worst_ idea you have ever had. Has he – what is he doing? Has he _modified_ my recipe?”

“Just give it a try, Ig.” Gladiolus says, trying to keep the pleading tone out of his voice.

“This is a complete mockery!”

“I can hear you!” Prompto says, looking completely offended. “You were running us out of gil! I had to do something!”

“I’ll run you out of gil!” Ignis says in possibly the worst comeback Gladiolus has ever heard. He actually cringes. “My meals are maximised for the optimal calorie and energy output!”

“And mine are maximised for tastiness and bang for your buck!”

“Prompto Argentum-!”

Gladiolus almost uses the ‘it’s just food Iggy’ line again before realising it’ll ultimately be futile. Instead he puts his arm around Ignis’s back and guides him away. “Give him a chance, Ig. No one is taking away your cooking rights, Prompto just wanted a go.”

“This is going to be awful. I never should have trusted you.”

“If it is awful, we’ll all have learned a lesson. By the way, your recipes are under Noctis’s pillow. You can go get them. See, I did get them back, in a way.”

Ignis glares, stalking into the tent. “Oh man, that could have gone better,” Prompto quips.

“He just feels threatened. It’s not often someone can usurp him, and, well. Don’t take this the wrong way but it’s _you_ who might be usurping in this case.”

“Cruel!” Prompto cries. “I heard those implications!”

“I know, that’s why I said ‘don’t take this the wrong way’.”

“Humph.” Prompto returns to his cooking without another word. Noctis pokes his head out of the tent, looking entirely confused.

“You okay, Noct?” Gladiolus asks.

“Yeah, just wondering what’s got Ignis throwing a tantrum. And what the smell is, because it’s really good.”

“That’d be me and me!” Prompto answers cheerfully. “I’m almost done, you ready for the meal of your life Noct?"

“Prompto’s cooking? Oh, there’s no vegetables right?”

“I chucked some in, but not for you!”

Noctis’s smirk is absolutely delightful. “Great, you’ve got my attention.”

Gladiolus is actually excited when Prompto dishes it up. Unlike Ignis, the presentation leaves a lot to be desired – it’s literally a steak on a plate with a few vegetables dumped on top, unlike Ignis’s more artistic layouts – but it smells _good._ Like a slice of heaven has made its way onto his plate and is wafting about its blissful aroma. Noctis doesn’t even give the plate a second look before making his way through it.

“Well?” Prompto says, all but bouncing on his seat. “What do you think?”

“Good,” is all Noctis says, because he’s too busy eating to say anything else.

Gladiolus takes the plunge next. Good isn’t enough of a word, because it’s just as excellent tasting as it smells. If Ignis’s food tastes like something you’d be served in a 5 star restaurant, then Prompto’s is something you’d get in a steakhouse. Not over the top in flavour, but all the better for it. One isn’t superior to the other, so to speak, but Prompto’s definitely has charm.

“This is damn amazing,” Gladiolus tells him. Prompto beams. “Go on, Iggy, try some.”

Ignis is busy inspecting his, like it might explode. It clearly takes a while for him to work up the courage to taste it, and his face is an absolute picture of amazement when he takes a bite. Literally, even, because Prompto snaps a photo of the moment. “Excuse me!” Ignis shouts, but not before swallowing the food. “Can you _not?_ ”

“Sorry!” Prompto grins. “So? So? What do you think?”

It takes every fibre of Ignis’s being to say it, and Gladiolus knows it. “…It could be better, but not bad.”

It’s the closest to praise he’s going to get and Prompto knows it. “Woo!” he yells, punching the air. “You know, I couldn’t have done it without your original reci-!”

“Don’t.” Ignis says. “Rub it in.”

“Yessir!”                                                      

Gladiolus snorts and takes another bite. Amazing.


	3. High Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mood in camp is low. Ignis decides to become a photographer to fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was a bit stumped for this one, but drew upon some old ideas I wrote years ago and recycled them here! I had fun with this one in the end, even though it proved quite difficult to write at first! Enjoy!

The mood in camp is sombre. Perhaps sombre isn’t quite the word. Solemn? Serious? Grave? No, that last one is too serious. Sober? Why do all words conveying a drop in mood begin with S? Ignis has no idea, but he does know that even his wide range of options don’t seem to cover the atmosphere that has descended over the other three members of his team.

Outwardly, nothing has obviously changed. Prompto is still grinning, Gladiolus is still making sarcastic quips, Noctis is still complaining at the alarm. The real issue is the smaller details that Ignis’s sharp eye detects; the lack of cheer and bounce behind Prompto’s cheers, the missing bite from Gladiolus’s remarks, the absent good natured fighting when pulling Noctis out of a sleep induced haze. He notices all of it, but he doesn’t say anything. Mostly, it’s because he can’t figure out why.

Everything had been fine. Hell. It’s even been _fun_ despite the constant dangers that refuse to stop dogging them on their way to Altissia and Luna. But something’s gone and changed in all of them over the past few days and no matter how much Ignis pulls and picks apart and analyses their movements, he can’t guess the issue. Is it just listlessness, he wonders? Tiredness? Are all of them just irritable and this will pass in a few days?

It doesn’t. The longer they spend in Duscae, the worse it seems to get. Noctis stares at his phone over dinner one night, not doing anything in particular with it, just looking. In an absolute blatant infringement of privacy, Ignis casually walks behind him to get a quick glance over his shoulder to see what he’s looking at. As it turns out, the phone is on the contact screen. More specifically, it’s on the page for his father, his number sitting invitingly near the top. Even if Noctis rang it, he wouldn’t get an answer.

Ignis files the information away, his brain like a computer when it comes to these sorts of things. He’s always been a careful watcher, an observer of things, wanting to put every single piece of information together before acting.

Other little things begin to crop up as the days pass. Gladiolus starts fights with anything and everything they come across, seemingly for the thrill more than anything else. Prompto spends more time with his camera than any of them, treating it like a friend or a lifeline, each night spent quietly looking through older pictures on the small digital screen. Occasionally he’ll show one to them all and they’ll all grin, but that’s as far as it goes. Ignis collects information like some kind of private investigator, obsessively but quietly, watching them all become more and more withdrawn.

It takes him a while, yes, but Ignis is intelligent, and he is not so foolish to be unable to put the pieces together. Homesickness, he realises, has found them all in some way. Being unable to return to the crown city has hit them hard. What have they all left behind? Homes, families, friends, _lives._ It’s only because he’s been so busy looking after the prince that he hasn’t thought about it himself.

The thing is – what can he do? He is a master of many things, but this is well out of his comfort zone. Cheering people up is Prompto’s jurisdiction. Ignis prefers to remain squarely in the advisor area of expertise. Figuring out battle plans is far, far easier than dragging someone’s mood out of the mud.

As their friend though, he has an obligation, though obligation probably isn’t right, because they’re not work even if they do push it from time to time. So it’s with this in mind that Ignis downs an entire cup of Ebony in the morning before stealing Prompto’s camera from under his eyes.

“H-hey! Iggy, what are you doing?” Ignis ignores him, inspecting the camera carefully trying to figure out how it works. Why on earth do they have to be so complicated these days, with all their little buttons and dials? What do they even mean? “Woah, be careful! Ignis, please have mercy and give it back.”

Aha! Ignis hits the capture button and is rewarded with a satisfying click. “Um.” Prompto says. “The lens cap is on.”

“I knew that,” Ignis says quickly despite very clearly not. He removes the cap and takes another picture. Prompto frowns and then pulls an odd face. “What?”

“Did you even check the focus on that? Or the aperture settings?”

“No.” Ignis says, not knowing what any of that means and not particularly caring either. He doesn’t need to be an excellent photographer to make his plan work. “Get up, Prompto.”

“Um, why?”

“Gladio, Highness!” Ignis calls, turning around from him, camera still in hand. “Both of you, up!”

“What’s gotten into him?” Gladiolus asks Noctis.

“Watched him down a whole cup of Ebony in five minutes earlier.”

“That’d explain it.”

“You two can sass me all you like. It doesn’t change the fact that I want both of you up and out of this tent. You too, Prompto.” Without giving them a chance to respond, Ignis stalks out of the tent. Seeing as he’s still holding the camera hostage, it doesn’t take Prompto long to come dashing out after him. “Glad to see one of you is eager.”

“You’re acting _really_ weird.” Prompto says, biting his lip. “Can I, uh, get my camera back?”

“No.”

He waits until the other two are out of the tent before calling a makeshift group meeting. That is to say; he stands in front of them and does all of the talking. “It has come to my attention that morale is low.” he says slowly, carefully, watching them for reactions. Noctis’s eyes meet the floor. Gladiolus coughs lightly. Prompto rubs the back of his head. “I see you’re aware of what I’m talking about. Well, as your friend-”

“This is gonna be good,” Gladiolus says.

“—and his Highness’s royal advisor—”

“Always comes down to that.” Noctis interrupts.

“—I have taken it upon myself to do something. So I don’t care what you have to say about it, we are going to go around the Duscae region and we are going to take photographs.”

“That sounds productive.” Gladiolus says, shaking his head.

“Fun though, I guess.” Prompto shrugs. “I dunno guys, it could be cool.”

“Then let’s go.” Ignis says. “I won’t wait for slackers, so keep up!”

He turns on his heel, walking out into the Duscaen landscape, and even though they grumble, the other three follow.

_~x~_

Ignis is no photographer, so in a move that surprises exactly no one, Prompto is handed back the camera rather quickly to mess with the settings. It’s all very robotic at first, all of them mooching around the grassland as Ignis tries to engage them. Prompto puts some effort in here and there, half heartedly trying to offer up good places to take photos. “This looks kind of cool,” he says, gesturing at a dead tree that looks like it’s been struck by lightning. “I could probably get a shot here if you want.”

“No, just get the camera set for me. I’ll take the photo.” Ignis says, marching over to the tree. “This will be good, yes. Arrange yourselves.”

Prompto hands him the camera with a warning to be careful before regarding the tree with an appraising look. Noctis leans his back against the trunk but doesn’t do much else. Gladiolus just stands in front of it rather awkwardly, like he’s a static tree himself.

Ignis raises the camera and looks at the screen. No. This won’t do at all. It looks entirely staged, and more pressingly, it looks like everyone wants nothing more than to _leave._ The whole point of this is to cheer them up for goodness sake. “What kind of photograph is this?” he asks accusingly. “At least smile.”

Oh. That’s even worse. Gladiolus looks like a serial murderer, Noctis resembles…something, and Prompto doesn’t even look happy. Does Ignis have to do everything? This won’t do. Sighing, he thinks quickly.

And then, subtly, he prepares a fire spell and directs it at Prompto’s feet.

_That_ gets movement. Prompto shrieks, jumping upwards like a spooked cat. Noctis gets off the tree, startling upwards with wide eyes. Gladiolus steps backwards, snorting. Without wasting a moment, Ignis hits the capture button, the scene forever stored away safely on the camera’s memory.

“That’s more like it!” he calls to them over Prompto’s scream. “Excellent, let’s have some more energy like that!”

“What! You just tried to _kill_ me!”

“It was all in good jest.” Ignis says, checking the photo back. “What an excellent shot, if I do say so myself.”

“Did you really just try and charcoal Prompto to get a good picture?” Noctis asks, tone somewhere between awe and shock. “I…didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I have many talents, Highness.”

“Wouldn’t really call that a talent.” Gladiolus laughs. “Okay, okay, I get it though, we need to lighten up. That was pretty damn funny.”

“Funny for you, maybe,” Prompto says, crossing his arms. “I want my camera back. Let _me_ take a picture.”

“In a moment. Let’s try again.”

“Seriously?” Noctis frowns, but just for a moment. His attention is quickly captured by the tree, which, after a second’s thought, he begins to climb. Why he doesn’t just warp to whatever point he wants, Ignis doesn’t know, but he isn’t about to question it when it’s the most activity he’s seen from him in days. When he gets to his desired branch, he tests it before sitting. “Hey, this isn’t so bad. Prompto, get on one too!”

Maybe it’s because it’s Noctis who asked him, but Prompto wastes no time in scaling the tree himself. He chooses a branch lower than Noctis’s, balancing himself precariously on it. Perhaps another time Ignis would have shouted at them for doing something that could easily lead to injury. “Gladio, are _you_ going to climb it?” he asks jokingly.

Gladiolus looks at him like he’s stupid. “Are you kidding? I’d bring down the whole damn tree.”

“Ignis would fit,” Noctis calls down a little more energetically.

“I’m taking the picture,” he protests. “Don’t worry, Highness, this set up is perfect.”

He kneels down to take this one, not caring about dirtying his trouser legs for once. After he’s pressed the capture button a few times, something magic happens – the three of them begin to loosen up. Noctis leans forward on his branch, his grin more natural. Prompto waves at him. Gladiolus even offers up his own easy smile.

Ignis feels disgustingly proud of himself. He did this. If he hadn’t, they’d all be sitting at the campsite moping.

“Hey, Iggy!” Prompto shouts. “Do me a favour, come over! You can make up for casting magic at me.”

“Hm?” Ignis stands under him. “What do you need?”

“Catch!” Prompto drops his phone down, requiring some _very_ quick reflexes on Ignis’s part to snatch it out of the air without dropping Prompto’s camera at the same time. “Take a picture of this on there, and make sure you get a selfie of yourself that you like too, cause I wanna put this on my social media. No use in putting anything up if we can’t all be on the post.”

“I can’t believe you’re updating your profiles while we’re on the _run._ ”

“No one even knows about it! It’s just a personal portfolio.”

Ignis sighs, but does as he asks. Taking a selfie is more difficult than it looks, even with Prompto’s front facing camera. He never realised one side of his face looked better than the other. “Is this sufficient?”

“You tell me, I can’t see! It’s probably fine.”

“Think we should find another spot?” Noctis says. “As cool as this tree is, we could definitely get different photos.”

Ignis smiles. “An excellent idea if I’ve ever heard one.”

_~x~_

At the end of the day they return to camp having achieved nothing of note, but with Prompto’s camera’s memory card a good deal fuller. Duscae proved to be incredibly photogenic, with countless different areas and locales to take pictures at.

“I can’t believe we managed to get pictures with chocobos!” Prompto exclaims excitedly, grabbing his camera back from Ignis at the first opportunity. “That one that let you pet it was so cool Gladio!”

“Yeah, would hardly believe it was wild, would you?” he says, grinning at the memory. “Not as good as the picture of Noctis falling into the lake.”

“The timing on that was _perfect_!” Prompto agrees, snickering. Noctis rolls his eyes. “Oh, oh, let’s look through before we eat dinner! I wanna see ‘em properly.”

Ignis doesn’t add to the conversation, too busy enjoying the moment. Being humble has no place here, because he put the pieces in place for this to happen. There’s nothing better than the mood in camp being like this, everyone in high spirits. Gladiolus puts the chairs out and they each take one before Prompto starts passing around the camera.

“You know, it’s a shame.” Noctis says as they look through. “Ignis isn’t in any of them.”

“That is only natural, Highness.” Ignis says. “I was the photographer after all.”

Gladiolus takes the camera. “Still feels kind of wrong. Iggy did all of this for us and he ain’t in any of them.”

“I assure you, I don’t—”

He’s cut off by the click of the camera and a flash in his face. “Good shot!” Gladiolus cheers, showing the other two. They both burst out laughing.

“What?” Ignis demands. “What on earth does this look like? Is it that bad? Delete it.”

“Oh, we’re keeping this one.” Prompto grins. “Sorry Iggy. I’ll show you when I have a back-up.”


	4. Rock Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Noctis lost deep in a cavern, fights erupt, bad jokes are told, and Prompto ends up in the middle of it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had SO much trouble getting this one out, but what I did end up was a rather fast paced little adventure? Anyway, day four! Went way out of my comfort zone with this one and I'm swinging in with two hours left of the day where I am. As usual, beta'd and edited by myself. Thank you all for the hits, kudos and comments so far!
> 
> The formatting on this chapter is being funky no matter what I do...please try and ignore those two sections where it won't play ball!

Splitting up had been an _awful_ idea, not that Prompto had said as much at the time. One thing he’s learned quickly on this journey is that what Ignis says usually goes and most of the time, he’s fine with that. Prompto himself is no royal advisor; his brain doesn’t work in fine details and consequences. He’s built for creativity; a think later type of guy, so it’s just easier to leave all of the real planning to the expert.

So, maybe he can be forgiven for not saying anything. Ignis has never steered them wrong before, being a clever man with an even cleverer way of looking at things. Prompto looks up to him, even if he’d never tell him that. While he knows he’ll never be as crafty, as suave, or as intelligent, he can still aspire towards it.

Right now, he’s aspiring to none of Ignis’s ideals. “Highness!” Ignis hisses down one of the cave’s stony corridors, shining his torch down it. “For goodness sake, this isn’t funny.”

“He can’t have gone that far.” Gladiolus says, wandering half way down. “Oi, Noct! C’mon, we wanna leave!”

Prompto rubs his arms as he waits for a response, trying to chase the chill from his skin. It has seeped into his bones though, an icy sense of dread accompanying it. This was supposed to have been _easy;_ scope out the four different paths of the cave, see if there was anything of note, and then return to the entrance. They were all tough, the monsters in the area hadn’t proved a threat yet, and as far as Ignis could surmise, the cave wasn’t _big_.

Except now, Noctis hasn’t returned.

“Prompto,” Ignis says curtly. He’s tenser than normal, his arms crossed against his body “Is your phone working?”

Taking it from his pocket, he turns the screen on and checks it. Predictably, there isn’t a 3 or G to be seen, but he does have a slither of signal. “He hasn’t texted me or anything, if that’s what your asking.”

“Then send _him_ one.” Ignis snaps. Prompto flinches. “…Apologies. That wasn’t how I intended for that to come out.”

“Yikes, okay, no worries I guess.” Opening up his messaging app, Prompto tries to ignore the sting of that outburst and begins to type. _“hey noct where r u?? iggy is throwing a fit and we kinda wanna leave so if by some miracle u have signal pls come to the entrance”_

“He’s probably just fallen asleep somewhere,” Gladiolus says, but the joke falls flat on its face. Prompto gives a half hearted laugh, watching the text take an absolute age to go through. “Well, c’mon, we ain’t gonna get anywhere just standing around. Wanna split up and look?”

“Absolutely not,” Ignis says at the same time that Prompto says “Are you _kidding?!”_ Ignis gives him a savage look before continuing. “There will be no more splitting up. We’ve already lost one person so far, and I’d be loathe to lose another.”

“That’s what I was gonna say! Just, not with as many words. And some extra ones to point out that we didn’t need to split when Noct only could have gone one way.” Prompto says, but it’s lost as Gladiolus takes Ignis’s statement as permission to charge down the route Noctis took. Ignis follows behind, leaving Prompto to take up the rear, clutching his phone tightly. Despite having the vibrate on, he still checks it every few seconds to see if there’s a response. Unsurprisingly one doesn’t come.

Without Noctis there, the group dynamic becomes startlingly _wrong._ He’s always quiet, sure, but there’s never a situation where he doesn’t have some wiseass comment to make in response to something one of them has said. “He’s probably just lost,” Ignis says, sounding more like he’s trying to reassure himself than anything else. “No doubt just has no idea how to get back.”

Despite having absolutely no evidence to back it up, that sounds about as unlikely as a chocobo living in the ocean. Noctis isn’t _stupid,_ and the cave hadn’t been twisty or at all mazelike where Prompto had been. Still, saying anything like that could lead the mood to drop further, and the last thing he wants to do is incite Ignis’s wrath at a time like this.

He’s got to try and lighten the atmosphre somehow. “Knock knock.” Prompto says.

Ignis doesn’t bite. Gladiolus does. “Who’s there?”

“Interrupting chocobo.”

“What?” Ignis says. “Prompto, what on earth are you talking about?”

“ _Interrupting chocobo,_ ” Prompto repeats.

“Interrupting chocobo wh-?”

“Kweh!”

The silence in response is resounding. Whether they understood the joke or not is questionable. Maybe they just think it was stupid. Ignis sighs, and they continue to walk.

Noctis would have appreciated the joke, Prompto thinks. He still needs to make one out of the golden _“Noct Noct”_ pun. He’s going to change the face of knock knock jokes forever whenever they actually find the prince in question. He checks his phone again. The screen is a stupid group selfie that he managed to get a few months ago before any of this went down and they were having a night out together. They should do that again soon.

“Highness!” Ignis calls again. “If you can hear me, say something!”

“We’ve only been walking for five damn minutes,” Gladiolus says. “He ain’t gonna hear anything if he’s deep in the cavern.”

“You said literally moments ago that he couldn’t have gone far.”

“I was trying to make you feel better. All you’re doing is shouting into the void.”

“Excuse _me_ for trying to find him.”

  
”We’re all trying to find him, Ignis!.”

“Well I don’t see you doing a lot apart from walking!”

“I don’t know what else you _expect_ me to do!”

Prompto watches this back and forth like it’s a tennis match, unsure whether or not to intervene. On one hand, it’s nice not to be on the end of Ignis’s scathing tongue for once. On the other, Ignis must be seriously on edge to be biting as much as he is. The tension in the air is so thick that he could probably pierce it with a bullet. Maybe he should, although firing a gun in here would probably only achieve a deadly ricochet.

“Do you guys wanna hear another joke?”

“No!” they both say at once. Prompto winces and makes sure to fall into step behind them to avoid having anything else directed at him. He opens the messaging app on his phone again and types out another text.

_“iggy and gladio are getting FEISTY and its scary as hell so can u like show urself soon pls bc this is rly rly uncomfortable and im also kind of worried abt u”_

He pauses, glancing up at the other two, watching them continue to bicker. _“oh man they’re fighting p bad this is Not Good cmon noct text back if u can.”_

Sending it, he waits for it to go and is greeted with a failure message. His heart plummets into his stomach. Of course there’s no signal this deep in; they’ll only go through when they return to the entrance. No wonder Noctis hasn’t responded to the first one. Gripping his phone tightly enough to nearly crack the screen, he takes a deep breath and presses onwards behind his team-mates.

They’ll laugh about this tonight he tells himself.

_“okay so i told them all a joke but. they werent rly having it. so. KNOCK KNOCK haha, im kidding! i’ll tell u later.”_

_“gdi noct im gonna kick ur ass for this.”_

_“ur an idiot”_

_“look seriously my hands are kind of shaking i keep needing to go back and erase what im writing bc my spelling is shot so srsly im rly worried”_

He hates how he turns into a serial texter when he’s nervous, but he has to do _something_ to keep himself occupied as every turn of the cave seems to shed no light on where the hell Noctis has gone. It’s like a weird version of talking to himself, but it sort of works for a while.

“My torch is dying,” Gladiolus mutters, stopping to shake it. Ignis heaves a sigh. “Don’t give me that, ain’t my fault.”

“The last thing we want is our torches to run out and for us to be stuck in here with no light. We need to get a move on.”

  
”We wouldn’t even be in here if you hadn’t suggested the genius idea of splitting up.” 

Ignis’s eyes turn dangerous. “And who was it, I recall, who decided splitting up again would have been a good course of action?”

That’s it, the final staw that’s broken the proverbial horse’s back. “ _Enough_!” Prompto cries, stepping in between them. “Just stop it already! Fighting isn’t gonna get Noct back any quicker, so both of you shut the hell up! You’re wasting time!”

The silence this time is completely stunned, probably because neither of them expected _Prompto_ to start shouting. While they’re still shocked into stillness, Prompto takes the initiative and charges ahead, intent on finding Noctis himself if the other two weren’t going to.

“Noct! Noct!” he calls, jogging ahead. The cave gets narrower and narrower before cutting off abruptly in a dead end, the wall in front of him made up of countless uneven rocks. He stops short, looking around dumbly. Hang on. No way. This is impossible. They haven’t found Noctis yet. There’s no way the cave can just _end._

Had they missed a turn? Had there been a hidden corridor that they hadn’t noticed while he’d been glued to his phone and the other two had been fighting? Frustration builds in his chest. “Noct!” he shouts, throwing his head back. “Noct, I swear to all that is holy-!”

“Prompto?”

Abruptly, he turns, facing the wall where the cave cuts off. Was that-?

“Prompto!” Ignis’s voice comes from behind him, two sets of rushed footsteps accompanying it. “Prompto, what were you thinking, running off li-!”

“Shh!” Prompto says, putting a finger to his lips. He listens carefully, walking closer to the rock-wall. “Hello?”

“Prompto?” the voice is muffled, tired sounding, but it’s definitely there. “That’s you, right?”

“Noct!” Prompto says, feeling his entire body sag with relief. “It’s me! Ignis and Gladio are here too. Agh, we were _so_ worried! Like, everyone was fighting worried! Oh man, oh man, you’re here! Wait, um, where _is_ here? Noct, where are you?”

“Whole ceiling came tumbling down…” Noctis’s voice comes, this time sounding pained. “Got trapped here with a bunch of monsters. Took them out, but…”

“But?” Ignis cuts in. “Highness. Are you alright?”

“Ran out of energy…couldn’t warp out or heal myself. My leg isn’t that great.”

“But you’re not crushed, right champ?” Gladiolus asks. “You can move?”

“Tons of space in here. Dig me out?”

Ignis removes his gloves. “Consider it done. Move back, and we’ll get you out.”

Prompto waits with bated breath as Gladiolus and Ignis begin lugging rocks from the wall, picking carefully to avoid causing a collapse. To busy himself, Prompto pulls out and catalogues the amount of tiny potion vials he has in his pockets. It’s a good thing that they stocked up back at the last petrol station; they have tons.

It’s long, hard work. Ignis and Gladiolus are sweating with the strain, so Prompto joins in the effort. With the three of them pulling rocks, it doesn’t take much longer for them to get it into a state where they can finally get to Noctis.

“Noct!” Prompto calls when the space is enough for him to get through. He hops through, his torch shining on a dusty, but mostly intact Noctis sitting a little way in.  He finally lets himself grin, feeling like the titanic weight on his chest finally lift. The relief is amazing. “Oh _man_ oh _man_ you’re really here!”

“I’m here.” Noctis confirms, wincing as he shifts his leg. “Took your time. Sorry for making you worry. Knew you guys would come through eventually.”

“We had to!” Prompto says, shoving a potion in his face. “Ah, I’m so, so glad to see you! I was seriously panicking there! Quick, drink up so we can get out of here. Ignis and Gladiolus have been doing my head in.”

“Really? Hah…” Noctis downs the potion on one go, shuddering at the taste. “Ugh. Give me a second.” Evidently the potion takes effect quickly, because not a minute after swallowing it Noctis is up on his feet dusting himself off. “Let’s get out of here. I’m sick of caves.”

“Haha, wanting some sunlight?”

“That, and a campsite.”

“I feel you on that one. I’m so relieved you’re okay, Noct.” Prompto heads back to the opening they created, taking it slow for Noctis in case his leg is still paining him. “Iggy, Iggy, I’ve got him!”

“Thank goodness,” Ignis, the relief evident in his voice. Prompto literally watches the tension wash out of his body as he lays eyes on the prince. “Are you alright, Highness?”

“Been better,” Noctis says, bumping fists with Gladiolus as he rejoins them. “Let’s not do that again.”

“Don’t worry, I ripped into Iggy so much that I think he’ll think twice about splitting up next time.” Gladiolus’s smile is sheepish as he says it. “Might have been too harsh though.”

“I may have been unreasonable also.” Ignis admits. “Regardless. It’s in the past and the prince is safe. We’ve been lucky.”

“Definitely lucky!” Prompto grins, the hop firmly back in his step. “Noct? There’s gonna be a _ton_ of messages coming through to your phone later, so you can ignore ‘em.”

Noctis smirks. “I can imagine. Noted.”

“Highness?” Ignis says. “I must apologise. My faulty planning lead to this situation. I won’t let it happen again.”

“It’s fine, seriously. I’m alright, mostly.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here then!” Gladiolus says, gesturing with a swing of his arm. They’re all quick to agree, heading back into the corridor that brought them here. It’s never felt better, having all four of them together.

“Okay, okay, one more thing before we go though,” Prompto says, linking his hands behind his head loosely. “Hey, Noct. Knock knock.”

Noctis’s expression is completely bored already. “Who’s there?”

“Interrupting chocobo.”

He frowns. “Interrupting chocobo-?”

“Kweh!”

Noctis groans, running a hand through his hair. “Please never repeat that one again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was writing this earlier I asked my sister for a joke for Prompto. When she told it my reaction was the same as Ignis's :')


	5. The Bro Code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis is sick, Prompto wants a nickname, Ignis deals with emojis, and Gladiolus watches them drive down the wrong path. Four tiny stories about the boys and the Bro Code.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about being a day late with this one! Yesterday wasn't the greatest and I didn't really have it in me to write comedy. This one is a little shorter than the others, but it was fun to play around with! 
> 
> Bro code prompts from here: http://www.brocode.org/

**72: A bro never catches a cold. Only women catch colds, bro’s are struck down with Man Flu.**

Noctis is ill. Not _ill_ ill, because he’s not near death or throwing up his breakfast anywhere, but ill enough to not be sleeping and ill enough to complain. It’s been years since he was last sick, but somehow he’s managed to be the one and only member of their little group to be struck down.

“Head hurts…” he mutters, lying in the tent with his arm over his eyes to block out wayward sunlight. It feels like a laser beam is trying to carve out abstract shapes in his brain, and at the same time he can barely breathe because his nose is so thoroughly blocked. “Ignis.”

“You had painkillers not twenty minutes ago, Highness.” Ignis says. “I’m sorry, but you simply need to wait for them to take effect.”

Well, that settles it, Noctis thinks. Ignis is just a stuck up killjoy that doesn’t want him to get better. “Seriously…? I’m dying.”

“Highness, I hate to be so blunt with you but this is a cold. You aren’t going to pass away just yet.”

Prompto snorts, loudly enough for Noctis to remove his arm to see what’s so funny. “A cold?” he says, wearing a slasher smile. “No way Iggy. This is no cold. We don’t get colds.”

Ignis’s eye roll could kill it’s so exasperated. “And who might ‘we’ be? Pray tell, Prompto, what does he have then?”

“Are you kidding Iggy?” Gladiolus says before Prompto can enlighten him. “That’s definitely a textbook case of Man Flu.”

Noctis laughs softly. Ignis’s face is blank. “Of all the ridiculousness.” he says. “Both things are exactly the same.”

“Nuh uh! Big difference. _Big_ difference. One is kind of pansy. The other is like, life or death.” Prompto gestures with his hands exactly how life and death it is. “Man flu can kill!”

“Brain cells, maybe.”  Ignis deadpans, crossing his arms against his chest. “Hopefully this _Man Flu_ will strike you next then.”

Prompto’s eyes are wide with horror. “ _Iggy_! How could you? That’s so harsh!”

“Slam dunk.” Gladiolus says.

“Great, but can we maybe keep it down a little?” Noctis says, turning onto his side. His nose clears a little, but it’s little more than a hope-spot when it comes back with a vengeance. “Ugh. I hate you all for being fine.”

“We’re too manly for Man Flu,” Prompto says proudly.

“Objectivity and subjectivity are very different things.” Ignis says.

**91: A Bro DOES NOT choose his own nickname. A nickname is bestowed upon you by your fellow bros, either as a punishment or a reward for epic deeds.**

There is a startling amount of inequality in their squad of four, Prompto realises one sunny afternoon as Ignis is driving them down a seemingly never ending road. Iggy, Gladio, Noct – where the hell is his nickname? He’s had it, he thinks, there is no way he can carry on being a part of this friendship group until he starts being treated like one of them.

“Iggy,” Prompto says, “Can you call me like, Promp?”

“No.” Ignis says.

“Gladio?”

“What? No. What kind of name is _Promp?_ ”

“A nickname! I need one!” he sees Ignis smirk. “Hey!”

“You want a nickname?” Noctis asks, turning in his seat to look into the front. “You need to be given it then. It’s not really something you make up for yourself.”

Puffing out his cheeks, Prompto curls into his seat. “Aww…but you guys all have one. Don’t you think I deserve one?”

“No,” Ignis says again.

“Sure, we can give you one.” Gladiolus says, leaning forward in his seat eagerly. “Gimme a sec. I need some inspiration.”

“Women,” Noctis says, “seeing as he fancies himself as being so good at picking them up.”

“Great shout, Noct. Let’s call him Pimphoe.”

Oh. Oh that was _not_ what he wanted. Jumping up in his seat (forgoing every car safety rule ever), he spins around, alarm on his face. “You can’t call me that!”

“You wanted a nickname, now you’ve got one.”

“No! Not that!” Prompto cries, waving his arms. “It has to be cool!”

“Sit down, Pimphoe.” Ignis says, and though the delivery is a little stiff, suggesting that he’s trying _too_ hard, it’s still mortifying.

“Ignis! No, no, no! No way! Not that! You can’t just ruin my name like that!”

“You asked for a nickname. I don’t know what else you expected from them.”

He can feel his face burning with embarrassment. This is _not_ how this was supposed to go. “Come on guys, please don’t do this to me.”

“Should have known better than to ask us.” Noctis shrugs.

Running a hand over his face, Prompto sinks slowly and painfully back into his seat, wishing that the ground would swallow him up. More preferably, he’d like a time machine, but they don’t seem to be in circulation yet. “I take it back, just call me Prompto.”

“Nah,” Gladiolus says. “This is gold.”

**103: Bro’s don’t use emoticons in messages to other bros**

“What does semicolon three c mean?” Ignis asks, looking intently at his phone.

Noctis doesn’t even look up from his book. “Is that a text from Prompto?”

“Yes.”

“It’s like a cat. With a hand at its mouth. Put it on its side.”

Doing so, Ignis frowns at the screen. “Ah, I see. It’s an emoji.”

“Get used to it. Prompto puts them in a pretty huge majority of his texts.”

“I surmised.” Ignis responds to the text, shaking his head. “Honestly. They don’t add anything. What’s the point?”

“In what? Oh, emojis.” Noctis shrugs. “They make the text more cute, I guess. It’s Prompto’s style.”

“Like all of the misspellings and shortening of words.”

“Yep. You get used to them. It’s like learning another language, texting with Prompto.”

“And you’ve put up with this for years?”

“Uh huh.”

The phone vibrates with a response from Prompto. Ignis winces, wondering what desecration of the English language awaits him this time.

**157: A bro doesn’t get lost, he merely finds an alternate route.**

Gladiolus is no navigator. Roads and directions aren’t important to him, and as a bodyguard right and left only matter when figuring out where potential dangers are coming from. Even so, Gladiolus isn’t so stupid as to not notice when Ignis goes past a sign pointing towards Altissia on the road side, especially when he’s going the _opposite way._

He doesn’t say anything at first, because Prompto takes care of that for him. “Iggy, did you just go the wrong way?”

“No.” Ignis says, despite the answer being very much _yes._

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“I don’t mean to be a stick in the mud,” Gladiolus says, “but you definitely just went the wrong way past that sign.”

Ignis stares straight at the road. Noctis doesn’t chip in because he’s too busy sleeping. “I’m taking my own route. It’s faster.”

Gladiolus suspects that Ignis doesn’t want to own up to his mistake, so he sits back in his seat and waits for him to eventually subtly turn them around and get them back on the right road. He doesn’t. The area around them turns into fields, designating a slow change into a countryside kind of back road. This is _not_ the way to Altissia.

“Um. Are we lost?” Prompto asks, frowning at the window.

“I don’t get lost.” Ignis says in a way that isn’t quite an answer.

“Nah, Iggy’s _perfect._ ” Gladiolus chimes in.

Ignis’s frustration is obvious in his tone of voice. “Indeed. Can you be quiet?”

“Definitely lost.” Prompto says.

“Alternative route.” Ignis says.

“Alternatively lost.” Gladiolus snorts.


End file.
